Rubber heel and fastening device



Mar. 13, 1923.

H. L. BEAL. 1,448,049,

RUBBQER HEEL AND FASTENING DEVICE.

' men APR. 1. 1920.

w 10 g0 I Patented Mar. 13, 1923.

umT-so sT Es HERMAN L. BEAL, or ISBOOKLINE,(MASSACHUSETTS. Y

RUBBER HEEL AND rnsrnnme nnvron.

Application fi1ed April 1,

To all whom it may concern: i p

Be it known that I, HERMAN L. 'BEAL,

a citizen of the United States, residing at' will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.- 1 Thepresent invention relates toimprovements in rubber heels andfa'steningdevices therefor. v

In securing fiat rubber heels to shoe heels the nails are oftenover-driven, that isto say, they are driven beyond the depth to whichthey should be driven, thereby compressing the rubber-of the heelbetween the nail washer and the shoeheel. The compression of the rubberunder the ,7 washer causes the rubber to bepushed out laterally andWhere the nails are located near the edge of the shoe heel thissometimes causes the opening heel and the called bubbling. This isobviously objectionable because it detracts from the ap-' pearance ofthe heel after it hasv been attached to the shoe. In the manufacture ofprong heels, such,

I for example, as the heelshown in the patent to Hooper, Re. No. 14,596,wherein a prong plate is placed in the mould and the rubber compound isplaced on top of the prong plate, provision has to bemade for support-'ing the plate against the pressure of the moulds when the mouldsarefirst closed. In the Hooper 4 supported in the mould by posts? uponwhich the plate rests, three suchposts being indicated in the, drawings.If only a small pressure is applied tothe moulds before the rubbercompound is heated suf- 4 ficiently to become fluent no injury is donethe plate, but if pressure is applied to the moulds too quicklythe'platesare by the pressure and hence it has been necessary, heel, totake pains to'seethat-the moulds are heated so as to render the compoundmore or less fluent before high pressure is of the joint, between therubber a shoe heel which is sometimes patent the plate is shown asdistorted in the manufacture of this type of- 1920;.seriai'n e'ieess;

applied to the mouldsf This requires more attention andskill on "thepart of thepressman and therefore increases the costiof the The presentinvention contemplates in its broader aspects a constructionof rubberheel I and a fasteningde'vice for fastening the heel v to a shoeheelhaving provision-' for p'reventing bubbling on the one hand and at thesame time; by the "same, device, "securing a more adequate support forthe plate in themould. In the specific embodiment illustratedin the'drawings a prong heel iS shown. The prongsare provided with anenlargement betwee'n'the plate" and the attaching surface of the'heel.This "prevents over-driving the 'nails' and contributes to supportingthe plate in the mould. Broadly considered it is immaterial whether theenlargeinentfwhich constitutes a distance piece,

or spacer, be "an "integral part of theprong or not, so long asa"rigi'dcontrivance isv provided for preventing; over-driving and for supportingthe plate' in 'the mould. In another aspect, and for securing only theadvantage 'of preventing over dr'iving, it is apparent that theinventioncontemplates" provlcling the heel-with a spacer or distance piece whichpositively determinesthe' distance of the nail head theattachingfaceoftheheelT I In the accompanying drawings illustrat ing thepreferred formof the invention Fig. 1 shows a Nerger-shaped heel having;a .prong plateprovided with prongs; Fig.2. shows a flat'heel providedwith a similar prong plate;-Fig."f3 shows a view' of the prong platealone; Fig; 4: isa section taken on the line et4:, Fig. 2 mayalso bere-] garded as a sectiontaken on a' similar line,

of the heelshown in Fig. 1, after such heel has been attached to theshoe heel) Fig.

is a View of the prong or nail; Fig. 6]is a sectional view 'of'a' mouldwith the prong plate in place and Fig. '7 is a transverse sectional newof a heel secured to a shoe heel, (in both Figs. 6"and- 7thefsect'ion istaken on a line corresponding with the line g.- t.

' The illustrated embodiment of the invention is described as follows; IThe body por:

tion 10 of the rubberheel may be 'ofthe in the prong holes in the plate.

Nerger shape, as shown in Fig. 1, or the flatheel shape, as shown in Fig2. It is pro vided with a prong device for securing it to the shoe heel.This prong device consists of a metal plate 16 to which arerigidlyattached three prongs 18. The plate is tri an ular in shape, has a hole26 in its center and three holes to receive the prongs. The central hole26 is prefidee for the presses of permitting the rubber compound to flowthrough it when the malesare elosed'. With the compounds used at thepresent time the hole 26 has a diameter o 5%. k

The prongs 18 are enlarged at 20 and provided with a head 22 adapted tobe, received he enlargement 20 is a spacer or distance piece torlocating the position of the plate in the mould and, therefore, in therubber heel The spacer 20 of the prong is made f g long. When the prongheads 22am riveted in the plate, the spacer is reduced in length of aninch by the riveting. pressure so that after the prongs are riveted inplace in the plate the spacer is long. In Fig. 6 the three parts of themould comprising the top plate 28, center plate 30, and bot= tom plate32, are shown in the positions which they occupy when the mould isclosed. The prong plate is shown in position in the mould The holes 34in the mould are provided to receive the prongs 18, and plate supportingpins. or posts 36 are provided in the bottom plate to project upwardbetween the prongs and to engage and contribute to the support of theprong plate. The posts 36 form holes 40in the attaching face of therubber heel but the presence of these holes in; the attaching, face isnot objectionable. When the plate is put in place in the bottom plate,the spacers 20 of the prongs, to-

gether with the posts 36, support the plate in proper positionin themould; It will thus be seen that when the rubber compound V is placed ontop of the plate in the heel cavity with the inset 38 ot the top plate28 pr'oje'cting into t he top of the heel cavity of the mould, and issubjjectedyto heat and pressure, the heat will soften the compound andthe pressure will force it down around the plate and through the hole inthe plate and cause itto conform to the shape of the cavity. The posts86 and spacers 2,0 adequately serve to'support the plate against thepressure of the compound. Heat andpressure are continued a sufiicientlength of time to vulcanize the heel, during which the prong plate isproperly supported in the mould by the spacers 20 and posts 36. Aftervulcanization, the completed heel as shown in Figs. 1 or 2, is removedfrom the mould.

The completed heel is attached to, the shoe by hammering it onto theshoe heel, the shoe preferably being supported on a jack of some sort.The prongs, being large and rugged, penetrate the heel and the pointsare clinched onthe inside. The spacers or distance pieces of the prongsact to prevent the prongs from being overdriven; because when thespacers come up against the heel they prevent further penetration of thenails in the shoe heel. This, the-reiore; prevems" bubbling.

In rubber heels secured to the shoe heel by means 6f nails-and washersor by means of prong plates, the rubber under the washer or proiig plateis subjected to pressure during the attaching of the heel to the shoeheel, and thereafter when the heel is in use the pressure exerted on theheel in walking tends to reli'eve the nail head from the ex pansiveforce of the rubber'under the washer or prong plate. This pressure uponthe under side of the washer or prong plate is re stored every time thefoot is lifted from the ground, with the result that in use thereis. anintermittent, or variable, pressure on the under side of the nail headtending to withdraw it from the shoe heel. As is well known, this intime loosens the nail in the shoe heel and in the case of concavo-convexheels this tendency to pullthe nails is greatly increased by reason ofthe tendency of the heel to resume its initial curved shape, with theresult that conoavo-convex heelsv operate to pull the nails out of theshoe heels. Examination of any concavo convex heel after it has beenworn for a whilewill frequently show that, the nail heads have worked uptoward the tread surface of the heel. This loo sening of the nails orprongs is avoided by the present invention because the nail or prong isnot subjected to an increase and decrease of pressure en the under sidevof the nail, tending to pull it out of the shoe heel. This constitutesan important feature of the present invention. 3 V v,

The invention is susceptible of embodiment, in other forms. M I 1 t f Itis to beobserved that the rubber heel of the present inventioncontemplates a rubber heel body, a nail or prong to bedrivcn into theshoe heel, a connection embedded in thebody of the heel for connectingit to the nail or prong, and a spaceror distance piece for preventingover-driving of the nails. Viewed in its broader aspects it isimmaterial whether the spacer or distance piece be integral with thenail or prong or not; likewise it is immaterial what, the shape of theconnection piece is by which the body of the heel is secured to thenail; andiurthermore. it is immaterial whatshapeof heel is em ployedwhether curved or flat. The following claims are, therefore to be readand understood as defining the invention as broadly as their languagepermits.

1. A rubber heel having a fastening device comprising a plate embeddedin the bedded in the heel provided with prongs body portion of the heel,nails secured to the having enlargements thereon for preventplate forattaching the rubber heel to the ing over-driving of the prongs in theshoe 10 shoe heel, the nails being provided with heel, and forcontributing to the support 5 spacers for preventing the overdriving ofof the prong plate in the mould.

the nails.

2. A rubber heel having a. prong plate em- HERMAN L. BEAL,

